Saturday, August 23, 2008

If the U.S. men's team was looking for inspiration Saturday night in Beijing, it certainly could have found some in the form of the U.S. women.

The women -- coached by Charlotte resident Anne Donovan -- were superb throughout this tournament. In the gold-medal game, they blasted Australia, 92-65. The Aussies and the U.S. had both entered the final with 7-0 records here, but it was no contest.

Donovan said she had never seen a more "selfless" U.S. team. It was led by Lisa Leslie, who won her fourth Olympic gold medal here. Leslie wore all of her medals to the press conference and, when she got up, clanked them on the microphone. She was much more graceful on court, scoring 14 points for the balanced U.S. attack.

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and about half the U.S. men's team were in attendance. They play in their own gold-medal final Sunday against Spain (2:30 p.m. Beijing time, 2:30 a.m. U.S. time on the East Coast).